South Korea and Japan are working hard to keep deeper tensions from jeopardizing their broader relations and mutual interests. Diplomats from South Korea, Japan and the United States met in Washington on July 19 to further discuss what the U.S.-led trilateral structure will do to pressure North Korea to end its weapons programs. And though Seoul and Tokyo have the political will to keep their relationship under control, they continue to encounter roadblocks.

On July 18, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Wha announced plans to launch a task force re-examining a 2015 deal that resolved the lingering issue of Japan's World War II-era Korean "comfort women," who were forced to provide sexual services to Japanese forces. Kang was clear in her intention to coordinate a group of government officials and experts for the effort, but she stopped short of saying she planned to fully renegotiate the deal.

The contentious comfort women deal was a focus of President Moon Jae In's election campaign and has been a long-standing point of tension with Japan. Neither Tokyo nor Seoul wants to undermine their relationship at the moment, but Moon's new government needs to appease constituents and solidify his nationalist image. Revisiting the deal is an effective way to do that. Moon already did something similar with the United States, declaring a pause and environmental assessment of the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense missile system.

Tokyo and Seoul are showing other signs of disagreement over how to tackle the U.S. strategy of "maximum pressure and engagement" with North Korea. Moon has called for a softer approach to the North, while Japan has emphasized pressure. Anonymous Japanese Foreign Ministry officials criticized South Korea's July 17 proposal to hold military talks with North Korea. They called South Korea "out of step" with Japan and the United States, though South Korean officials said they cleared the proposed talks with Washington.

But as with the comfort women deal, the two sides curbed open disagreement. Official statements by Japan's chief Cabinet secretary refrained from condemning the potential negotiations, saying that they were compatible with the larger goal of enhancing pressure on the North. So though serious tensions remain, Seoul and Tokyo share enough security concerns to work toward cooperation, even as their approaches diverge.